Supporting The Design Process Within An Organisational Context

This paper attempts to take what has been essentially abstract thinking about how to support the design process and relocates it within the working and organisational context of design. Through a single case analysis we analyse how organisational exigencies affect design activities and design train of thought. On the basis of this study we consider how tools that have been developed to support the design process do not take account of the collaborative, interactional, and organisational ordering of the design process and make recommendations as to the features that one family of support tools, design rational tools, should poses.